Steel material: what is the difference between stainless steel and carbon steel?
Selecting steel type is an important decision for each project. There are many different types of steel, but carbon or stainless steel is mostly used in medicine. This article discusses the difference between Volkmann blades.
In general, steel is an alloy with iron as the main component. An alloy is a mix of metal and other components. The main difference between carbon and stainless steel is that carbon steel is largely made of carbon and iron, and stainless steel is largely made of iron and chromium.
Carbon steel contains at least 95% iron with carbon content up to 2%. Mixing with carbon makes steel stronger. The higher carbon content is, the stronger steel is. Also, this kind of steel can be sharpened thinner.
Iron mixed with chromium is known as stainless steel. Stainless steel, in addition to chromium, contains molybdenum and nickel, due to which the blade corrodes slowly.
How does stainless steel resist corrosion?
Stainless steel contains at least 10% chromium, therefore iron oxidation changes to produce a complex oxide that resists further oxidation and forms a very thin layer on the surface, that also protects steel from adverse environmental effects.